Kimi Raikkonen: scripting one of the greatest comebacks in F1

Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen made an unexpected comeback in 2012 with Lotus, and has rightly proved his mettle in the sport to be ranked among the all time greats of his era.

With his no-nonsense attitude and total devotion to racing, Kimi Raikkonen has garnered a huge fan following and praise from F1 pundits during his career.

Kimi at the time of his debut was deemed to be inexperienced for formula 1 by FIA, but he proved everyone wrong though his consistent performance. After only one year with Sauber, he got a drive with McLaren and the following year, and he almost defeated Michael Schumacher for the championship in 2003.

After another close battle for the championship in 2005, this time with Fernando Alonso, Kimi finally left McLaren, to join their rivals Ferrari from 2007 onwards. This year, after a long wait he claimed the title by just one point from Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

However, the subsequent seasons in 2008 and 2009 proved less successful. Ferrari, not satisfied with his performance, terminated his contract a year before to make way for Fernando Alonso. After talks for drive with other teams fell through, he finally decided to take a sabbatical.

Away from Formula 1, he participated in the World Rally Championship and also contested in several rounds of NASCAR championship. But in 2011, rumors started to fly about talks with Williams, and later in the year it was finally announced that Kimi would be returning to the sport with Lotus F1 team.

Many were skeptical about his return to F1, as there had been very few comebacks of this sort which had been successful. Also, another reason was that Michael Schumacher, who had also returned to the sport, had failed to make any major impression.

Kimi struggled in qualifying at his first race in Australia, but after a tough race, finished seventh. To the surprise of everyone at only his fourth race of the season in Bahrain, he mounted a challenge for victory to Sebastian Vettel, and eventually finished just 3 seconds behind him.

This result was followed by a string of points finishes and podiums at Spain, Valencia, Germany, Hungary and Belgium, but still a win had eluded him. This was finally realized at the 18th round of the season in Abu Dhabi, where he finally got the 19th win of his career. His consistent results throughout the season helped him climb up to 3rd in the drivers standings.

His brilliant form continued in 2013 with a win at the first round of the season in Australia, and followed by several strong podium finishes. This year in September, also came the announcement that he had signed a two year deal with his former employer, Ferrari.

A few years ago, hardly anyone would have anticipated Kimi to return to the sport and also much less to get even better at racing upon his comeback. Also, rather paradoxically, Ferrari has now re-signed him, the same team which had fired him a few years back for lack of performance.

Kimi Raikkonen has displayed great talent throughout his career and has also proved that time away from the sport has not deterred his motivation not even by one bit. It is for his ability to stage such a great comeback to the sport that he can easily be ranked among the greats like Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, who had all left the sport, but only to return strongly in the future.